Paper Rex’s aggressive playstyle was not an advantage in this match against LATAM’s best.
The third match in Group A saw Leviatán going against Paper Rex to see who will be the first team that will qualify for the Playoffs for Champions Istanbul. The two top teams from APAC and LATAM met up in the winners’ match to determine who will move on to the next stage, and who will fight another day in Group.
The match started with Haven, where both teams played in a very close race – both teams equalized by the end of the first half of the map. In the second half, however, Leviatán started to press on PRX as the defending team. They took the lead in the second and ended the map with a string of five back-to-back wins which ended the match by round 21. They won 13-8.
Bind is where the ping-pong between the two teams started. The baton was passed between the teams consistently until the end of the first half when both teams had the same number of wins. PRX was also strong in the second half, where they were strong in half of the rounds played in the second half. Leviatán however pressed a little bit harder by round 24, leaving the perfect circumstance of availability of all agent powers allowing the South American team to overcome the APAC team in a split second, essentially killing everyone in one sweep. That proved to be the moment where Paper Rex had to succumb to the idea that they lost the map, and give the win to Leviatán, who won 13-11.
With this win, Leviatán is the first team that qualified for the Playoffs stage for this tournament. Paper Rex meanwhile will be fighting another day, where they will be meeting the winner of the elimination match between EDward Gaming and Team Liquid.
VCT Champions Istanbul is happening from 31 August until 18 September in Istanbul, with the Playoffs set to be played in front of a live audience at Volkswagen Arena from 9 September 2022.
